1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to vehicles and, more specifically, to weatherstrips for sealing the edges of a window within a vehicle frame.
2. Description of the Art
A weatherstrip is employed on vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, etc., to seal the edges of a movable window to a surrounding vehicle roof frame or vehicle door window frame. Such weatherstrips, which are typically formed of a rubber or other elastomeric material, are mounted in the roof frame or door window frame to resiliently engage the edges of the door window when the window is moved to its fully raised position. Such weatherstrips provide a tight seal about the edges of the window which prevents the entry of outside elements, such as air, water and noise, into the interior of the vehicle.
For fuel economy reasons, the trend in current automotive design is to more aerodynamic vehicles having less wind resistance. This has resulted in vehicles having highly curved roof-to-door surfaces. Older vehicle designs frequently employed a rain gutter in the form of a channel member attached to the side edge of the vehicle roof immediately above each door opening. Such rain gutters or channels collected water flowing off of the roof and diverted the water away from the window opening to prevent entry of the water into the interior passenger compartment when the window was not in a fully raised position. However, the use of such rain gutters increased the cost of the vehicle since they are a separate member requiring additional assembly operations. Such rain gutters also increased drag or wind resistance on the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,737,412 illustrates a typical rain gutter mounted on the edge of a vehicle roof structure immediately above the window opening. This patent also discloses a conventional weatherstrip seal mounted to the roof structure for engaging the top edge of the vehicle window when the vehicle window is moved to a fully raised or up position.
However, due to the aerodynamic design of current vehicles, such separate rain gutters have fallen into disfavor such that most vehicles manufactured today do not include a rain gutter or any other provision for diverting water flowing off of the vehicle roof away from the door windows. Thus, such water can easily enter the interior passenger compartment if the window is not in its fully raised position engaged with the window weatherstrip seal. This problem is further aggravated by the highly curved roof-to-door structures of current vehicles in which the upper edge of the door or window extends partially into the vehicle roof structure thereby placing a portion of the interior passenger compartment directly below the top portion of the window opening so as to allow water to easily enter the passenger compartment when the window is not in its fully raised position.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a vehicle weatherstrip seal which prevents the entry of water into the interior passenger compartment of such vehicles when a movable side window is not in its fully raised position. It would also be desirable to provide such a weatherstrip seal which is easily incorporated into existing door window and vehicle roof constructions without any modification thereto. It would also be desirable to provide a window weatherstrip seal which diverts water from the vehicle roof away from the window in addition to functioning as a seal to prevent the entry of air and water into the interior passenger compartment when the window is not fully raised and engaged with the weatherstrip seal.